V-GPS

Navigation without GPS

When GPS is jammed, spoofed, or lost, a drone drifts with the wind and can crash. V-GPS compares live camera images with satellite maps stored on board and gives the drone its position.

Why V-GPS?

Robust image matching

Satellite maps are usually taken long before the flight, and the ground changes with the time of day and the season. The AI image processing in V-GPS keeps stable features such as roads and buildings and ignores shadows and vegetation.

Same area in autumn
Same area under snow

Low light

With a thermal (IR) camera, V-GPS also works at night by matching thermal images to the satellite map.

Thermal image
Thermal image
Satellite map
Satellite map

Proven in flight

V-GPS has been verified in flight tests with GPS jammers and GPS spoofers. In both cases, the drone kept flying stably on the V-GPS position.

Integration

V-GPS is installed between the GPS receiver and the flight controller. Normally it passes GPS data through unchanged while checking it against its own camera-based position. If the two differ by more than a set threshold, it treats GPS as faulty and sends its own position to the flight controller instead. It uses the standard GPS protocol, so no changes to the flight controller are needed.

Specifications

Flight altitude30 m or more above ground
OutputPosition and heading
InterfaceBetween GPS receiver and flight controller, GPS protocol (NMEA)
Processing10 Hz or more on an NPU (no GPU required)
CameraSupplied camera module; thermal (IR) camera for night

Get in touch

To ask about V-GPS, contact [email protected].